Pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are efficacious
treatments of depression among diverse groups, however adherence to
medication, adherence to CBT homework, and appointment attendance are
barriers to effective treatmen in the community, particularly among
low income populations. This line of research seeks to investigate
whether text messaging (SMS) can be used to improve adherence to
treatment for depression by sending medication and appointment
reminders along with using SMS as a medium for CBT homework completion
to reinforce thought tracking and behavioral activation. This project
is currently in the initial feasibility/usability stage in preparation
for a randomized trial.

Internet World Health Research
Center

The mission of the Internet World Health Research Center (IWHRC, pronounced
“I work”) is to harness the power of the Internet to reach
those most in need with behavioral health interventions that are as effective
as traditional interventions and that can be administered directly to
them via the World Wide Web. www.health.ucsf.edu

Smoking Cessation Web Study: Tomando Control

The Tobacco Related Disease Research Program funded the establishment
of the Spanish/English Web Site for Smoking Cessation Trials at www.stopsmoking.ucsf.edu
and www.dejardefumar.ucsf.edu
. This project of the University of California, San Francisco/San Francisco
General Hospital Latino Mental Health Research Program is being conducted
in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco Medical
Effectiveness Research Center for Diverse Populations (MERC) and the University
of California, San Diego. During Phase I of the study, we created the
basic site and tested its ability to 1) recruit participants, 2) obtain
informed consent, 3) obtain initial assessment data, 4) provide one intervention,
and 5) obtain follow-up data, all with minimal human intervention. We
recruited over 4500 smokers, of whom over 1000 were Spanish-speaking.
During Phase II we carried out three sets of studies comparing two
smoking cessation conditions to each other. Publications from the first
two phases include:

During Phase IV, we carried out an exploratory smoking cessation study on the Web to estimate smoking cessation rates in a participant's preference outcome study, in which participants choose among the several self-help elements that we have been testing in the randomized trials described above.

Risk for major depression appears to be transmitted across generations.
Pregnancy and the postpartum period are key periods to study because maternal
emotion regulation deficits may affect both maternal and child outcomes.
Children of parents with emotion regulation problems are at higher risk
for developing similar problems over time.
The Mothers and Babies: Mood and Health Project was launched in 1998 by
the Latino Mental Health Research Program at the University of California,
San Francisco/San Francisco General Hospital. Its aims are: (1) to identify
pregnant women at imminent risk for major depressive episodes, and (2)
to test whether a cognitive-behavioral intervention reduces risk for maternal
depression and improves maternal and child functioning in high risk low-income
pregnant English and Spanish-speaking women.

Depression Management Course

Yan Leykin, Ph.D.
Ricardo Muñoz, Ph.D.

Untreated depression accounts for more than 11% of the world total disease burden. Depression is associated with up to 60% of suicide deaths, deteriorating health, and social problems. Most affected individuals are not receiving adequate treatment. The long-term objective of this project is to address the issue of untreated depression by developing and evaluating an effective Web-based intervention for depression, available at no cost and in multiple languages to depressed and dysphoric individuals anywhere in the world.

The current project is the first step towards that goal. We have developed a self-contained, interactive, modular, Web-based self-help intervention for depression. The intervention is based on cognitive-behavioral therapy, an empirically supported treatment for depression. Participants from the Internet community are invited to sign up for a customized eight-lesson intervention. This is a proof-of-concept study, with the goal of assessing the degree of interest in and the demand for Web interventions, and to obtain initial information about the effectiveness of this intervention.